


The Curse of the Time Lords

by chiaroscuroverse



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Crack, Dragons, F/M, Romance, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 18:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiaroscuroverse/pseuds/chiaroscuroverse
Summary: Rose discovers a reclusive second companion on the TARDIS and some mysteries of the ancients of Gallifrey





	The Curse of the Time Lords

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whatwecan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatwecan/gifts).



> My dwsecretsanta gift for @whatwecanfic  
> (Rating might go up)

It was Christmas Eve in the drunk tank.

Rose sprawled on a bench. A large, black-scaled dragon crouched in the corner looking at her with a plaintive expression. She glared at him and fell against the wall with a huff. 

“I’m so gonna kill you.” 

The only other actual drunk in the cell stirred and lifted a pointed finger. “D-d-dragon!! It’s a dragon!”

“Shh, close your eyes,” Rose told him. “It’s just a dream.” 

* * *

Rose got her first clue about the TARDIS’s other occupant in 1869 Cardiff.  


They were back in the TARDIS, having dispatched the alien ghosts and impressed Charles Dickens by dematerializing. The Doctor’s smile had only seemed to grow in intensity and she looked up from the monitor to find him watching her instead. Tears welled in her eyes. 

“Hey, now!” The Doctor swept her up in a hug. “You’re okay.”

“I know, I’m--it was a _lot_ and I jus’ have to let it out. M fine!” 

“Okay,” his chest rumbled. She hugged tighter around his neck, and suddenly grew aware of how much of her bare skin touched leather and wool. Who knew aliens could smell this nice? He hugged back tighter, around her waist, and it must be the corset strings on her top making her a little flushed and light-headed…

She pushed away from him. His face was a bit alarmed. 

“Hey, can you help me out? I have to get out of this thing, can’t breathe right. There was a whatsit in the wardrobe, but now…” She turned around and put her hands on her hips. 

“Right! ‘Course, let me just--” His fingers went to work on the ties. Rose moaned and took a deep breath. “Oh, that’s brilliant.” 

The Doctor chuckled. “Now if you wanted to try a _proper_ corset, I’ve got those up there too. Think you’re breathless now? Wouldn’t be any running if you had that on! I learned to do ‘em up fast because of a, well, there was this species…”

His words had slowed and he trailed off. And he’d gone from yanking on the lower strings to slowly drawing each lace out from the left and right loops. It was long past loose enough for her to manage the rest of her own, but she hadn’t made a move away from him. His fingers grazed her spine and one more lace swooshed through a loop. She shivered and clutched the now-loosened bodice to her chest. 

The Doctor dropped his hands and took a step away from her. “All done!” His voice had risen a couple octaves. “I--I’ll be right back!” 

Rose turned, “Wha--?” 

But the Doctor raced off down the hall like he was being chased. “Stay right there! Don’t move!!” he commanded from the hallway.

“Blimey,” Rose muttered, staring after him. She sat on the jumpseat. 

After several minutes, she commented to the TARDIS, “Shoulda brought a book.” 

After two more, she shrugged and went off down the hall to figure out what was going on. “Prob’ly gonna get lost." The dim hallways stretched out in front of her so far she wondered if it was an optical illusion, and she went vaguely in what she thought was the direction of her new bedroom. After several doors she heard a sound. 

“Doctor?” 

A groan--much louder this time, though she still couldn’t place it--and then a roar, and flames shot out from under a door ahead of her. 

“Doctor!” Rose screamed, “Doctor, there’s a fire!” What happened when a bigger-on-the-inside spaceship caught on fire? She banged on the door, but remembered something from fire safety about not opening it. Smoke now curled up from the gap under the door, though she couldn’t see any more flames. She stared for a second, looked up and down the hall for one of those fire extinguisher cubbies, but saw nothing but smoothness. 

The smoke continued pouring out and began to fill the hall. She coughed but stood frozen in indecision--the Doctor was somewhere inside and she needed to find him. But the doors were endless and she could die from smoke first. And maybe his kind of alien could breathe through it? But she couldn’t just leave him, not while she had a choice. 

Maybe he wasn’t in the burning room. She threw open the closest two doors, yelling, but found nothing. That’s a waste of time, she concluded, something had to have happened in there. She returned to the smoky room and steeled herself, gathering a layer of her skirt to use for covering her face--she wished she had a way to wet it. But before she could make her move, the lights blinked out a pattern and unseen sprinklers clicked on. Streams of water sprayed her, the hall, and apparently inside the room because steam was now rising instead. 

She leaned on her arm against the wall in front of her, taking deep breaths, and letting the relief flow through, even as she got soaked. After a minute, she tried the door but it wouldn’t budge. She banged on it. “Doctor! Doctor, are you all right?” 

Finally, a response. “Fine!” His voice sounded oddly strangled, but at least he was there. 

“Can I come in? Do you need help?”

“No! Nope, no help needed here, just a small accident.”

“Oh, okay.” She laughed nervously. “Was a--a little scared there for a minute. Thought this whole box might go up in flames.” 

“Naw, she’s got better protection than that. Usually she’d quickly remove oxygen, but she seemed have something to prove.” He raised his voice on the last two words, and the lights blinked all the way off for a couple seconds. 

Rose knocked on the door again. “Well, that doesn’t sound great either, but--seriously, how about I--”

The door opened and the Doctor stepped out and pulled it shut behind him. Rose gaped. His jacket was gone, he was barefoot, and his jumper was singed to the point of missing several chunks. She wrinkled her nose at a smell very much like burning hair. 

“Look at you!” she cried. The Doctor’s face and hands were sooty. 

“All good! No worries, uh...” he looked at her chest, then his head shot up and he contemplated the ceiling. She’d completely forgotten her drooping dress in all the confusion. 

“Oh come on! Forgive me for not worrying about _propriety_ when we’re about to go up in _flames_!” 

“Sorry! Sorry, didn’t mean it like that--’m tryin’ to be a, um, gentleman.” 

She glared. 

“I can be a gentleman!”

“Anyways. I better go get cleaned up, and you definitely need it. You’re gonna have to show me where my room is again.”

“Um, so, Rose.” He paced away, then turned back. “Thing is, there’s something I should tell you about the TARDIS. Just in case. There’s someone else here. Something else here! Sor’ of.”

She ignored a nervous twinge in her stomach and challenged him. “And? Spit it out!”

“It’s um, I have a--a dragon lives here too. You might see him, so I thought I should tell you.”

“A _dragon_! Like a...dragon-dragon? Fire-breathing--oh, my God, Doctor! Your _dragon_ started the fire!” She tried to go in the room and the Doctor blocked her. 

“You’re gonna have to leave it! Trust me, please. Can you do that? I know we haven’t known each other that long, but--it will be fine, I promise. He just needs a little...practice? It was an accident.”

“He could’a killed you!” 

“Accident!” 

“Why can’t I see him?”

“He’s not a circus exhibit!” The Doctor clenched his jaw and inhaled deeply, then turned on a big, false grin. “‘Sides, hasn’t it been a big enough day for you, between Charles Dickens and almost being turned into gas ghost zombies? He needs to be alone for now. For possibly....a long time. Hopefully.”

She pursed her lips. “You’re being really weird.”

“Solitary creatures, dragons! You don’t want to impose, do you?” He started steering her away from the room. 

“All right, fine. I was surprised, okay? After everything else that happened today the last thing I expected was…dragons.”

“Sorry. I’m almost as surprised as you are. Come ‘ere.” 

She went for a quick hug. “So, what, does he just not come out much?”

“Uh, yeah. S’been awhile.” 

“What’s his name?”

“His _name_? Oh. It’s, um, Jo--Jacques. Yeah.”

“Jacques.” She over-emphasized her French pronunciation. “Jacques the _dragon_?” 

“Dragons can be French too, you know.”

“Jacques the _French_ dragon?” 

“What’s wrong with that?”

“I dunno, expected something more like Mordor or Malekith.” 

“You’re really going to have to get past some prejudices.”

“Oi!” 

“Hopefully you won’t ever have to see him. And don’t try coming back here, either, he’s going to a deeper part of the TARDIS where he’s, uh, got more room to play.” 

“Is he dangerous? I mean, the fire-breathing part I got, but he wouldn’t like try to eat me or anything?”

“Prejudice!” 

The scorn in his voice annoyed her. “Well, how am I supposed to know?” 

“No, he won’t _eat_ you. He’s a sentient creature and would never harm you on purpose, I can promise you that.” 

She looked closely at the Doctor’s face. He seemed dead serious. She was suddenly exhausted. “Ok, got it. Whew, let’s call it a night, eh? Lead on to my room, if you would, Sir Doctor, friend of dragons!” 

They left the wet, stinky hall, and started so many adventures that Rose often forgot about poor Jacques, hiding in the depths of the TARDIS all alone. For a little while. 

* * *

Rose had finally talked the Doctor into a beach day. She wasn’t above using some flattery about how he must surely know the most pristine beaches in the entire universe. He gave her a knowing look at said flattery, but she brazenly stuck her tongue in her teeth and waited him out. 

“All right, Rose, you want the best beach in the universe? I’ve got it for you. The climate is something to behold. Natural greenhouse effect, the kind you want. Most of the planet is rain forest or volcanoes, and the beaches are white or black or blue sand. Pink too, if I’m rememberin’ right. Take your pick!”

“Well, I have to go with blue, don’t I? Since it doesn’t exist on my world.” 

“No, not quite. On Earth you've got purple, pink, there’s even a rainbow one, full of old weathered glass bottles. Humans are litterbugs. But blue--you’ve never seen blue sand like this!” He turned the monitor toward her proudly. 

She whooped, and ran off to get ready. 

She had previously put together her beach ensemble, hoping for a day like this. On a galaxy market months ago, the Doctor had handed her a credit stick and told her go wild while he picked through piles of mechanical junk. She felt like a cool million credits now, pinning up her hair and adjusting her outfit: red bikini covered by a full wrapping sarong, sunglasses, and sandals. She made a smooch face at the mirror with her freshly made-up red lips. 

When she strolled out to the console room, she found him just as cool behind his own shades--and black swim trunks! That was the part she couldn’t quite believe, though he also had on a white tshirt and sandals ( _Sandals!!!_ ) 

Well then. 

She raised her glasses to gape at him. “Are _you_ going swimming?” 

“It’s a beach, innit? What did you think I was gonna do?”

“I dunno, pop into a lounge chair in your leather and boots and then probably chase after a mysterious lobster until I’m done?”

“You wound me, Rose Tyler. I’m an excellent swimmer.”

“Course you are.” She patted his back teasingly, but the single, thin layer of cotton covering his skin let through body heat she wasn’t used to feeling, and her hand trembled as she pulled it back. 

So irritatingly attractive. Since that first sensual moment after the Gelth, they’d never come quite that close again, although once she knew what his fingers felt like on her body, she couldn’t forget. Still, he didn’t seem to want any repeats, so she’d stuffed the memory into a deep place she went to only at night, where she could expand and develop it at will. 

“Ready?” He grinned under those damn sunglasses. And turned and walked out all casually, as if she couldn’t see almost his entire legs, see his calf muscles twitching, see his bare forearms where he held a big umbrella and a towel. _Well, fuck_ , she thought, _he might as well be naked._

The beach was truly stunning--sand so blue the TARDIS looked like camouflage. Vegetation in greens and browns and purples rose up from time to time, including a copse of purple trees near them, but most of what she could see was variegated blue sand, and waves that turned from blue to white as the sand turned over in the light. There seemed to be people a long distance off.

She beamed up at the Doctor. “It’s amazing!” 

He shoved the umbrella pole into the sand, looking pleased. 

“I’m going right in!” she announced, kicking off her sandals. 

“Sounds good,” he said, and did the same. 

She gave him a challenging look, and couldn’t be sure if he was returning it under those dark shades, but when she unclasped her sarong and shimmied out, he stopped for a moment, mouth open, then whipped off his own shirt. 

Rose decided she couldn’t bear to look at his entire torso just yet and risk doing something embarrassing, so she threw down her sunglasses and ran for the water. “Catch me if you can!” 

She dove in, tasting salt, and swam as long as her breath lasted. The water was sharp and cool, somehow felt different than the ocean swimming she’d done at home, and she pushed up off the blue sea floor into the air. She found she could touch the bottom with tip-toes, and also tread water easily. A school of tiny fish rushed out of her path, and she realized how far she could see in the clear blue. It was reassuring (no sharks coming at you from the dark) but also eerie to be able to see all the plants and creatures around. She floated and looked out to the horizon where the large sun hung, seeming to swim in an atmospheric sea of its own. 

She looked down as a shape came rushing under her, and squealed when the Doctor bobbed up and grabbed her around the waist. They were both laughing as he wiped water from his eyes and surveyed their surroundings. 

“Caught you!”

“I let you catch me,” she laughed, and bounced in the water. “It’s easier to float here, seems like.”

“Mineral content. Your skin will feel extra soft. Another reason this place becomes a major galactic tourism spot in, oh, twenty years.” Drops of water ran down his grinning face. She’d seen him with a wet head before, but in decidedly less pleasant circumstances.

She impulsively tested his information by running her fingers across his shoulder. “Hmm, well, feels pretty soft. But then, I dunno know what your shoulder feels like normally, do I?” She was afraid to look at his face. He had floated back from her a smidge, maybe the vagaries of the water, or maybe she’d crossed the line. 

Better play it off and do something a little less intimate, she thought. “Wait, I’ve got it!” she crowed, and reached under the water. “Since I hold your hand _all_ the time, here’s the perfect test.” She rested on her very tiptoes, head and shoulders out of the water, and lifted his right hand. 

She glanced up. His eyes were a little wide but he said nothing. She first squeezed in an approximation of their usual hand-hold. 

“Hmm, seems a bit softer already, I’d say.”

“You think so?” Her stomach did a flip at the softness of his voice. 

Emboldened, she turned his hand over, palm down, and splashed water on it. “So if we do some more of this, really rub it in here--” She massaged from his wrist down to the ends of his fingers and back again. His hand twitched slightly as she repeated it a few more times. “‘Course, now to make it even I should do the other hand.” 

She looked up at him, hardly daring to breathe. His mouth was open and looked achingly soft. She let go of his right hand and slowly reached for his left. He made a sound, nearly a whimper, barely audible in the slight ocean breeze that surrounded them. She lifted his left hand and gasped.

The veins across his hand were glowing. 

“Wha--” she began, but the Doctor snatched it back and splashed away from her. 

“Goin’ for a swim! Don’t follow me! Go sunbathe for a bit!”

“But, I can go--”

“Time Lord swimming, you couldn’t keep up! Now don’t go gettin’ insulted, ’s just biology.” He bounced further and further back as she tread water, unable to think of anything to say or even to apologize. 

He turned away from her, dove into the water, and emerged a surprising distance away. Time Lord swimming...that part must be true. Tears sprang to her eyes, even though she tried to talk herself out of it. That cold sting of rejection. She scolded herself. _This is the Doctor._ _Can’t expect him to act like a normal person_.

She swam quickly to the (truly breathtaking) shore and walked out of the water. She’d let some tears wash away into in the ocean, and now stood and took in the landscape on the opposite side of the beach. Mountains rose into a cloudy pink sky in the distance. 

_Perspective_. This is what she’s here for. To see the universe, to be the Plus One. She closed her eyes and exhaled her hurt feelings. 

Grabbing the big beach towel, she shook off the blue sand, and laid it out carefully. She had a quiet laugh imagining all the places she’d doubtless find blue sand later, and she sat down. For a moment she rested on her knees and contemplated the ocean again. How long until the Doctor would feel ready to swim back? They’d be fine. Move on to their normal routine.

A disturbance in the water caught her eye. At first she thought it was a ship in the distance, but no, something closer. She leaned forward.

A head. Bobbing out of the water, black, horned-- _oh_!

She leaped off the towel and ran, yelling, “Jacques!” 

_TBC_


End file.
